CS:GO Ranking System Explained – How to rank up?

Welcome to all the players… One of the most wondered topics in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which is one of the most played games in the “Online Shooter” genre, is the ranking system. In this article, we will check out the answer to the questions such as “What are the rank types?” and “How can I promote my rank?”

What is the Ranking System of the Counter Strike: Global Offensive?

The CS:GO ranking system is an indicator of your talent that is directly proportional to the success you showcase in the competitive mode (5v5 real matches) of the game. There are 18 types of ranking in total and your rank may go up or down as you play good or bad within the scope of the conditions that we will list below. You can check out all rank types from the table below;

Remark: The rank classifications such as “Low, Medium and High” have been conceived by us, therefore they hold no official validity.

Why is the ranking required?

The most basic goal of the ranking system is, as you guessed, to ensure that the players with the closest skill sets are matched up with each other. In this manner, Valve aims to make the matches more competitive and fun to sustain the playability value of the game.

What is my rank going to be when I start playing the game?

You will not be assigned with a rank when you first start the game. After playing in Basic Fun mode for a while first, you need to pass the Level 3. When you do so, you will have access to the Competitive Modes. After entering into the Competitive Mode, you will not immediately have a rank and the game will match you up with and against with the Beginner Level players. The competitive system will try to determine how you play in your first few games. That is why it will impose a 21-hour waiting period once in two matches. At the end of 10 games in total, your rank, based on your skills up to that point, will be determined. After that, you will be matched up with players at your own rank and will be able to participate into matches as much as you like without the aforementioned waiting period. Naturally, your assigned rank will not be permanent. Based on the performance you showed during your matches, your rank will continue going up or down. That is why you don’t have to place too much importance to the rank that was initially assigned to you as it is up to you to get the promotions.

Based on what are the ranks calculated?

Each rank has a point range and those points that make up the range are called the ELO points. Actually right now, you also have an ELO score that is assigned to you based on your rank. When you climb up to a higher point range, you naturally rank up as well. When you lose points and go down to a lower point range, you lose a rank and thus you get demoted.

But what are the factors that influence this ELO score? There is much false information, circulating the internet. Therefore, we will continue this article based on the source in the Steam guide, which we considered as the “most trusted” source out there. First of all, information like the number of kills do not affect your ELO score except of being an MVP. We will talk about the MVP status down below. However, let’s take a look at the factors that does not have an impact on your ELO score as a list first;

Factors that do not affect the ELO Scores

Number of kills, assists and deaths,

Number of headshots,

Your hit accuracy,

Killing the entire enemy team, which we call an “ACE”,

Committing suicide,

Kill methods such bomb, knife and Zeus,

Winning or losing the round quickly,

Winning or losing the round by setting off the C4,

The ranking on the leatherboard, appear when you press the TAB key or the score itself,

Unlocking one or more Steam Achievements during the game,

Killing or rescuing the hostages,

Situations like inflicting or sustaining damage etc.

In short, none of the rumors, passed down from player to player, has any real impact on your ELO score. So, what does affect this score? Actually there are only two factors;

The factors that influence the ELO score;

Your ELO score (hence your rank) before starting the match,

Winning or losing the round.

Being MVP or not.

Here, lets open a short chapter about the MVP. In Counter Strike: Global Offensive, each round, an MVP is selected by the system per round. MVP stands for the “Most Valuable Player”. That means the MVP title is granted to the player, who contributed to the team most, who worked for his / her purpose in the best way and who has become the best player of his / her team. This person, after winning the round, will get the largest share from the ELO points. As the number of MVP title stack up during the match, the ELO points, obtained at the end of rounds directly increase as well.

It should also be noted that whatever happens within a round, when a round ends with a loss, everybody in the team loses points. Whether you get to be the hero and kill off the entire enemy team or display a show out there, you lose points if you lose the round. The amount of points that each player will lose is directly proportional with the points in the beginning. The players with higher ELO scores lose more points when they lose the round. On the other hand, the player with less ELO score will lose fewer points as well. The points, earned when winning a round are also proportional to the initial points. Those, who have higher initial ELO score, earn fewer points, while the players with lower ELO score get a higher share. That is why there is a chance that when you enter a match with your friends with higher ELO score than you, they may not get promoted while you may get promoted after winning a round.

As a final remark, let’s underline one thing; when a round is lost, no player gets any ELO points whatsoever, they all lose points. In contrast, meaning that a round ends with a victory, no player experiences a loss from his or her ELO points.

How does the ranking match up system work?

Each rank division has a specific point range. That means none of the five players that make up a team with the same rank may not have the same score. Because the point of a player, who is close to the next range and who is about to rank up, may have a higher core than the other players. This leads to the conclusion that the winning odds of two teams, comprised of 5 players with the same rank, is not %50-%50. When we even external factors out; the team with the higher points will have a better chance to win.

In short, this game actually matches you up based on your ELO score, not based on your rank. Of course, the situation, where five friends with different ranks enter into the game by forming a team, is a bit different. In such a case, the matchmaking system performs by taking the highest ranked player into account.

Why a higher rank?

If you play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive only in a casual base from time to time to have fun, ranking is not an important aspect for you. However, if you are serious about it and you get joy from that, you will be satisfied more by having a higher rank and playing with players with higher rank. Naturally, the game you will be playing will be harder as winning will get more difficult. However, since the high ranked players are more professional compared to the players with lower ranks, the game you will be playing will become more than a casual round as it will be transformed into a work of a team that pursue a common goal. Either use of the weapons and grenades, nor the communication and the sense of understanding each other and the tactical approaches will spice up your game.

In addition, the people, who sabotage the game in the lower ranks such as Silver and Nova, which are indicated in the table that we presented at the beginning of the article, are unfortunately plenty. In the games that you play just to spend some time, people, who affect your game negatively, who open fire at you, you do not help out the team and who make constant racket via the microphone will find you more. That kind of crowd is also present in higher ranks but they are far fewer.

How Can I Rank Up Fast

The thing is, the answer of this question is very simple. Win, win and win again. And there is no easy way to win without putting any effort. Actually for a short time, you can go in games with your friends with higher ranks than you (if you have) to gather as much star as possible. However, what matters is to be able to stay at the rank that you have, not having a high rank. That is why you have to improve yourself.

We indicated that the elements such as the number of kills you racked up do not influence your ELO score. Actually they do not have a direct effect but you need to win the round to get ELO points. And as you know, in order to win the round, you need to kill the enemy. And that is why, the base of the promotion is self improvement and playing good. Let us give you some advice;

Improve your reflexes and aiming reactions. For those purposes, there are thousands of training maps available in MAP Workshop. We will still give you the names of some sample maps but you can always choose from countless alternatives. The characteristic of those maps is that they have different training options that will increase your skill level. Make regular practice matches in those maps with BOTS. You will see that a little later, you your aiming speed and quality will be improved. Some of the examples include;

Trainig_aim_csgo2,

FastAim/Reflex Training Map

Training:BotAim v4B

You need to learn how to control the weapon well against the recoil of the weapons we call spraying. That is how you can put down your enemies in a much quicker and / or easier way and win the round. The example for spray training;

>Recoil master

Learn the map specific assault or defensive tactics. Again, tactics for using smoke and flash grenades are also important. There are training maps available for such purposes as well. However, instead of practicing on them, you can also watch some of the thousands of tactics videos found on YouTube.

If it’s possible, set up your own team. You may not form a good team with some random players. By playing with your own team constantly, you can get to know each other better and may get a better harmony in the process.

Here we tried to talk briefly about the ranking system in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive one of the most played games of all times. I sincerely hope that we were helpful. Until our next article, have a nice game…

What makes the Counter Strike Global Offensive so interesting is a very well built ranking system. In CS:GO, there are 18 ranks, in which the players are classified based on their skills. The lowest rank is the silver 1 while the highest order is the Global Elite. Most players stuck between Silver 3 and Nova 2.Ranking up from Nova level can only be achieved after long efforts. In the simplest terms, you at least need to master all the tactics that we presented here in our guides or you really need to have a inner warrior in your core.

So, this whole ranking gig is nice but how can you level up? In order to have a rank in CS:GO; you need to play in a competition mode. Those games take longer time than the ordinary matches and people tend to take them more seriously. Therefore, we suggest you don’t turn the situation into a hell for your team and for yourself if you don’t have too much of a spare time to play. In order to rank up, you need to win the matches in competition modes. How many wins you need to obtain is not certain. You get a certain point that you don’t see after a match depending on the difference between your team and the opposite team. For example, if you logged in a game with a player friend, who plays much better than you, the system will want to insert players, who play better than you in order to balance out. If the system does not do this, your unseen rank value increases a bit. That is why it is not certain how many matches you need to win in order to rise in CS:GO ranks. Sometimes it only takes 2-3 matches to rank up while it sometimes takes 7-8 matches.

If you lose games in a competition mode, your unseen rank value declines but again, you can lose value more or less compared to the average rank value of the team. In cases of draws, while the players with higher team average value lose some value, the team with lower ranks will earn points.

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